Effects of group sandplay therapy and group psychological guidance on alexithymia of youngsters

Objective To explore the effects of group sandplay therapy(GST) and group psychological guidance(GPG) on alexithymia of youngsters.Methods Appropriate subjects were screened by completing the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children(AQC) and series of tests.Fifty-two alexithymia students were grouped into GST group(13 ones),GPG group(17 ones) and control group(22 ones) which were matched with gender,age and school year.After interventions(70 min,once a week for 2 months),all subjects were asked to finish the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children(AQC) again in order to assess the effects of intervention.Results For the GPG group,the overall scores,the scores of Difficulty Identifying Feelings(DIF) and Externally-Oriented Thinking(EOT) in the posttest were respectively significantly lower than those in the pretest(P0.05).For the GST group,the scores of Difficulty Describing Feelings(DDF) in the posttest were significantly lower than those in the pretest(P0.05).Conclusion To some extent,group sandplay therapy and group psychological guidance may be effective in relieving alexithymia to youngsters.